"According to time capsule historian William Jarvis, most intentional time capsules usually do not provide much useful historical information: they are typically filled with "useless junk", new and pristine in condition, that tells little about the people of the time."
and . . .
If time capsules have a museum-like goal of preserving the culture of a particular time and place for study, they fulfill this goal very poorly in that they, by definition, are kept sealed for a particular length of time. Subsequent generations between the launch date and the target date will have no direct access to the artifacts and therefore these generations are prevented from learning from the contents directly. Therefore, time capsules can be seen, in respect to their usefulness to historians, as poorly implemented museums.
What was the focus intent or purpose of the study?
Were questions developed to guide the information required?
What were the criteria?
What learning skills were developed during the activity?
Teacher input of skills? DATs?
How has this built from previous activities of this nature?
Student and peer reflection and goal setting?
Develop a rubric with students in line with the intended learning, that sets out the progression of skills and how these can be measured, increased and collated for assessment purposes.
What have the students learned about themselves as learners?
Enriching the Learning
Do some research online
"According to time capsule historian William Jarvis, most intentional time capsules usually do not provide much useful historical information: they are typically filled with "useless junk", new and pristine in condition, that tells little about the people of the time."
and . . .
If time capsules have a museum-like goal of preserving the culture of a particular time and place for study, they fulfill this goal very poorly in that they, by definition, are kept sealed for a particular length of time. Subsequent generations between the launch date and the target date will have no direct access to the artifacts and therefore these generations are prevented from learning from the contents directly. Therefore, time capsules can be seen, in respect to their usefulness to historians, as poorly implemented museums.
Check out about the time capsule in the Palmerston North Police Station foundation stone at
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/tenone/20051111-279/feature_timecapsule.htm
What have the students learned about themselves as learners?
So what now? Where next?